OT: Michigan Bucks upset Chicago Fire in US Open Cup
The Michigan Bucks, an amateur fourth(?)-tier soccer team that plays in Pontiac, upset the visiting Chicago Fire 3-2 in extra time last night, advancing to the fourth of seven rounds of the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. In so doing, the Bucks became the first amateur team to notch 2 wins against MLS competition, 12 years after having become the first amateur team to notch a single win against the same.
Their fourth round game is also in Pontiac, where they'll take on the third-tier Dayton Dutch Lions at 7:30 this coming Tuesday for a spot in the quarterfinals.
Awesome, two soccer threads before 8. Gonna be a crappy day.
And worse yet, you had to make a snarky comment? Move along.
The Bucks have had a history of advancing the careers of Michigan soccer players (I think there are two on the team this year along with several Spartys). It is a big deal to beat an MLS team and the Bucks have done it twice in their history.
Did I really ruin your day with my comment? Its just a little joke, nothing to get all mad about. It's not like we are debating some controversial Michigan football topic.
and I still loved the comment. 2 soccer threads + snarky comment = much better morning
If you hate soccer so much, why did you bother to click on the thread, what alone make a snarky comment?
Here's a bottom line for you: anyone who goes into the arena of competition, no matter what sport, is worthy of your respect until he or she proves otherwise.
There's also at least one player from Oakland U. I went to high school with him and am glad to see him doing well after his (brief) trip to Europe to play.
I learned a long time ago (in the days where negging someone actually meant something) not to question the existence of a soccer thread on the thread itself. While I too think the fact that 2 of the first 3 threads of the day are soccer related (yet not actually U o M soccer related) is not a good sign as well, this is the time of year when (almost) any new forum topic with good intentions is welcome.
Oh, could you care less? Then we're all set here.
/learnthephrase
Nobody cares that you don't care.
Do the board a favor by refraining from imposing your negativity on everyone else.
Nobody cares, that you don't care about him not caring.
Crisis averted.
True dat, but his baby momma is yo momma.
Are you saying you couldn't care less or are you saying that this is actually something that you care about?
Despite all the turmoil, this may be the only thread where I won't be crucified for saying this, so uhh... Go Bucks.
Now we can all agree that this thread has caused a problem now. We have a go bucks chant that is justified. Lord help us all.
Too soon!!!
(see thread about trololo guy)
So, is the US Open Cup akin to the FA Cup, then?
It's pretty similar. It's a 7-round, 64-team tournament, with some rules for qualifying and MLS teams entering in the 3rd round. In the FA cup, according to Wikipedia, there are hundreds of teams that play in 6 qualifying rounds before getting to 128-team tournament of 8 'proper' rounds, where EPL teams join in the 3rd proper round. The US Open Cup is single-elimination with extra time (and presumably penalty kicks, but I don't know) settling draws, while the FA Cup plays a second game at the visiting team's venue before going to extra time and then kicks.
But yeah, same idea.
Not sure why somebody tagged your response as trolling, though.
There are a couple wieners on the board that just seem to hate soccer so much that they downvote nearly every comment.
Or is this an instance where the Fire were playing their bench players' bench players?
3rd string goalie, mostly 2nd stringers at other positions. They played only 2 starters, and they were still much better than the Bucks on a player-by-player basis.
But it's still a big deal for a fourth-tier amateur team to take out a bunch of players fielded from a top flight team's roster. The Bucks were one of three amateur teams to make the 3rd round, and the other 4th tier team in the 3rd round lost. The remaining amateur team, 5th tier Cal FC, upset a 3rd tier team in round 1 and a 4th tier team in round 2, but have to make it past the Portland Timbers of the MLS tonight to join the Bucks in round 4.
CAL FC is a team put together one month prior to the tournament by Eric Wynalda. If this CAL FC team makes it far in this tournament, hopefully people will see how bad our player rating system is. I think Eric Wynalda is trying to make a point here, but unfortunately I don't think people will take notice.
or a link to something discussing the player rating system and/or CAL FC? i don't know anything about either--just started paying attention to this stuff because i have DC FC tickets. thanks in advance!
Not really a link of the ratings, but talks about the makeup of the team.
http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/soccer/post/_/id/16827/winning-just…
One example:
One player from CAL FC is an El Salvador national who played in the game vs. the USMNT u23 that knocked us out of Olympic qualifying. Somehow he was deemed by the MLS GM to not be good enough to play in the MLS.
The following is just my opinion:
We put too much into measurables or athleticism in the US. This is great when you talk about potential in basetball, football or maybe even baseball. That is what I was talking about when it comes to player ratings. I think we make the mistake of over-valuing bigger faster players over players that might be smaller, but posses superior technical and tactical skills.
only one who finds the name 'Chicago Fire' to be extremely offensive? I can only imagine how it makes those who lived through the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 feel.
It's not like you see Pompeii calling its Serie F team the Volcano.
/s
Very cool! Too bad this is a competition I've never heard of (and I am a soccer fan) and the Fire didn't even care to play their best players to move on in it.
If this was the FA Cup and we were in England and one of the Premier League teams got upset this would be the huge sports story of the day.
It's also a bigger deal over there because it's by far the most popular sport. And the top flight teams usually don't play their best players until the later rounds of the FA Cup.
You've never heard of the US Open Cup? I wish more American soccer fans actually paid attention to American soccer...
In any case, a non-MLS team hasn't won the Cup since 1999 so I'm pretty happy for the Bucks to have beaten an MLS side.
I don't pay attention to MLS because Michigan doesn't have a team in the league. But now that Detroit has a minor league squad, I'm paying full attention to that.
The Fire have won 4 times, and come 2nd twice. (Seattle Sounders FC beat them last year to secure their third consecutive Open Cup victory.) It was just a calculated risk that backfired, I think.
Soccer is the only sport that gets this much hate. I don't know why, but this is very surprising coming from Mgoblog. You will never see me on a baseball or hockey thread disrespecting these sports. I think it's kinda immature to go on a thread about a sport you don't like and hate on it.
If I was like the a-holes in this thread, every baseball thread would include flames from me. I'm not an a-hole so I just never bother to click on those threads.